It is by sheer coincidence that I find myself starting two threads today that both have something to do with disabled access!
At the front of the office building in which I work, there are two normal swing-type doors, and a revolving door. One of the regular doors is usually locked. The other can be manually pulled open, but is also attached to a handicapped-access button that will automatically open the door. Once inside the vestibule, there are two more regular swinging doors. One is a pull-only, the other is pull or open-by-handicapped-button.
Almost everyone who approaches the building uses the buttons to access. They open comparatively slowly, as opposed to simply pulling them open.
Are these people lazy? Alternatively, is it me who is weird to think that it’s not a burden to open a door? Do you use the handicapped-access button even if you don’t need to? Why or why not?
I and evryone else uses the handicapped entrance to my building because the GOP (whose Bush/Cheney re-election national HQ occupies the 1st and 8th floors here) had the doors rigged so that they resist opening in the name of “security.”
It depends how far away the button is from the door. If the button is a good distance away from the door, the door will be opening by the time I reach it.
If the button is right next to the door, I don’t use the button or the door because those automatic doors often open slower than non-mechanized doors.
I suppose able-bodied people should try to avoid the automatic doors because by using them, they increase the wear and tear on the device unnecessarily.
I used to do it when I worked at the mall and the door that was unlocked when we got off work was the one with the handicapped button. I used the button often because the mechanism made the door a lot harder to open manually. Not like I couldn’t do it, but it took a good bit of effort and I’d been working for some obscene number of Christmas hours and had no extra effort for you, Mr. Door.
I tend not to unless my hands are full, but I’ve seen others do it and sometimes I think it’s so they can avoid holding it for someone they don’t know. Not because they don’t want to be polite, but because they want to avoid the whole give and take that’s involved, if that makes any sense.
God I HATE those doors. At my University, every single door to every building has this automatic opening system. Its either wrestle against the slow mechanism or wait for half a minute so you can pass. Can’t they possibly invent a door that disengages when it is opened manually? The worst one is the door to the library. They are HUGE metal doors and they are hard enough to open anyway. Plus you have to go against the mechanism which makes it even harder. There’s two sets you have to go through anyway. So yeah. I don’t see why anyone would wait for these things. They take way too long, and I really despise places that have ONLY these kinds of doors. I really don’t understand why anyone would want to use those doors when there is just a normal door right there.
I’ll have to admidt though that I have problems with revolving doors sometimes. Especially when I’m in a group. :o
My college has manual/automatic doors at some entrances. I see a lot of people using the automatic doors who don’t have to (mostly big jocks–seriously, if I, the weakest person ever, can make the effort to actually push the door open, you’d think they could too). We got an e-mail the other day about how we shouldn’t do that because there are some people who actually need the button, and they break faster when everyone’s using them.
I rarely use the automatic door. It’s much easier to just open the regular door. However, on the rare occassions when I have to use the automatic door (say, when the regular door is locked), I always use the button. It’s such a hassle to fight against the mechanism, and I worry that I’m breaking something.
And also use the stairs, so as not to tax the elevators unnecessarily?
I don’t buy this logic at all. Emergency rooms and some grocery stores have those motion detecting automatic doors, and open and shut countless times every day. Swap the motion detector (or floor pad) for a button, and all of a sudden it puts an undue burden on the mechanism?
I only use the buttons when my kid is with me, and he’s the one pushing them. (He’s four.)
Oh, well, I have used them when I had my hands full of stuff, or when Kid was a baby and was in a stroller. But to stand there and wait for it to open when I could just pull on it? Nope.
Exactly! I don’t understand why it’s so wrong for an able-bodied person to use them. I understand wondering why someone would wait when they could just open the door. Although, for me personally, having to put my entire body weight into opening a door makes me willing to wait for the mechanism.
And if the reason is “it’s a handicapped door”, I say get over it. Don’t block the door if there’s a handicapped person needing to get in, but feel free to use it for what it’s meant (getting into the building). I have a feeling these are the same people that refuse to use the handicapped stall in the restroom when there’s a line of all able-bodied people waiting. :mad:
I use the button for the same reason as outlined above- the doors are often much harder to pull open then regular doors, and if I"m heading that way and approaching a door with a button, I hit it.
The “normal” handicapped doors (press a button, it opens with reasonable celerity) I use if I’m overburdened (unless of course there’s a disabled person trying to use it.)
The assisted doors I avoid like the plague, especially the one in the McLennan library basement entrance that whips open and once knocked my glasses off.
Well, why not? Using elevators and automatic doors cost energy, something that’s kinda expensive right now and in a possibly finite quantity. Using my muscles uses my energy (of which I have plenty as I can still pinch an inch), makes me stronger, and, in a very, very small way, conserves a little. Plus, my parts are self-repairing while an elevator’s aren’t…
“Undue” is a subjective term. But simple logic tells you that the more that an electro-mechanical device is used, the more likely it is to break down and need repair. Yes, the automatic doors at grocery stores and emergency rooms do periodically break down and have to be repaired.
If four able-bodied persons use the automatic door for every disabled person who uses it, it will probably malfunction four times sooner or more often. Good work, kids.
I think the difference is between something that is designed and planned to be used by large numbers of people, and something that is meant to be used by a small number of people.
It’s possible (I’m 100% talking through my hat here) that there’s some kind of formula or rule of thumb that says if your building has an occupancy of X, you can expect Y% of those people to be handicapped, and thus to use the automatic door. Say the average person opens the door N times per day, so the automatic door opener will recieve 365 * X * Y/100 * N uses per year. The manufacturer says it’s waranteed for Z uses, so architects and planners (or whoever makes these decisions) can determine how long it’s going to last, and schedule maintainance and budget for replacement accordingly.
By contrast, they expect everybody going to, say the third floor and above, plus anyone who is handicapped, to use the elevator, so they purchase the appropriate class of elevator and figure those usage estimates into their maintaince and repair budget. Ditto for automatic doors at the supermarket (though that’s a slightly different situation, since there are usually several automatic doors, so if one breaks, it’s not as big a deal.)
Or maybe they know empirically that if you put in an automatic door opener, W% of non-handicapped occupants will use it and they take that into account.
Or maybe there’s no formula, and I’m an idiot. But whatever. I just know that if I was one of those people who push the automatic door-opener when there’s a normal door right beside it, and I saw a handicapped person who had to deal with a broken one, I’d feel like a bit of a heel.
I was in line for the bathroom at a large concert venue and the women wouldn’t use the handicapped stall. There were no visibly handicapped people in line, so there was no reason why people couldn’t use the stall. I started to go in and someone said, “Well, what happens if a handicapped person needs to go?” I just rolled my eyes and said, “I guess she’d have to wait a second just like everyone else.”
I don’t imagine that actual handicapped people are that offended by these things. It seems petty to me.